Calif. union nurses barred until weekend

Source: Modern Health Care

By Ashok Selvam

Some unionized San Francisco Bay Area nurses received an unwanted vacation following a one-day Christmas Eve strike, as three of the nine affected hospitals retained replacement nurses for five days to honor contracts with temporary staffing firms.

The unionized nurses, members of the California Nurses Association, were protesting proposed cuts to pay and benefits, including vacation days and health insurance. The earliest the CNA members could return to the three hospitals is Saturday. The union describes the action as a retaliatory lockout.

Hospital officials claim the union painted them into a corner and that to ensure adequate staffing, they agreed to five-day contracts with replacement nurses that keep union nurses out for the duration of the contracts. The CNA called for a Monday strike at nine hospitals. Sutter Health owns seven of those facilities, which employ 3,000 union nurses. Replacements continue to work at Sutter Solano Medical Center, Vallejo, Calif. Nurses at the remaining six Sutter hospitals were allowed back at work after the strike. Each of the seven hospitals has a separate labor contract.

The remaining two hospitals with replacement nurses are in San Jose, Calif., and are both owned by for-profit HCA. The 1,500 union nurses from Good Samaritan Hospital and Regional Medical Center of San Jose won't return to work until Saturday and are covered by one labor deal. Jan. 9 is the next scheduled negotiating date between nurses and HCA officials. Officials from the HCA hospitals couldn't be reached for comment.